By: Benjamin Greger
http://about.me/benjamingreger
The Brisket Bus was out in Miami this weekend for the South Beach Food and Wine Festival. The Daily City took a small trip Friday to catch some of what was going on. We caught up with the Brisket Bus right before they left for Saturday's Food Truck event hosted by Andrew Zimmern. I can't wait to get my hands on one of these Reuben's.
How did you get selected?
We were selected for the Food Network Wine and Food Festival in South Beach this year based primarily on one menu item: the Reuben. You see, we here at the Brisket Bus cure our own pastrami using a technique that has been used in traditional American Delicatessens since the early 1900's. It takes 3 long weeks, and a good amount of culinary know how, so it has become kind of a dying culinary art. Most Deli's use the less expensive and considerably easier method of ordering pastrami from a factory somewhere far far away, not our style. We use our house cured pastrami to make a selection of deli style sandwiches, the most popular of which is the Reuben. Interesting fact: we are one of 3 food trucks in the country (that we know of) to practice this technique (Big wheel Truck does as well, having 2 trucks willing to dedicate this level of craftsmanship to their food is a win for the Orlando food truck scene). Also, Burger Beast loves our #baconswag.
You're meeting a lot of trucks from across the country are you learning anything from them?
We studied trucks around the country, from the major food truck markets, during our pre-opening months. We picked a few from NY, MIA, LA, Baltimore, and Austin, mostly watching how they manage their social media resources and how they engage their fans. The major lesson we learned is that it doesnt really matter how you engage your fans, just THAT you engage your fans. The better food trucks dont just Tweet their schedules and specials, but maintain an open dialogue with the people who follow them. Also, we learned not to abuse the right to Tweet by making noise every few minutes... We've had to put a few trucks on mute in our feed, so we assume our fans would do the same. The flattering thing is, we now have food truck following us doing the same thing.
Side note: @TruckNorris of LA is the best food truck name we've found so far (Brisket Bus is a close second ;)
What does Miami think of your food?
Miami LOVES our food, they just dont know it yet.
Have you met any celebrities?
Havent had the chance to meet any celebs just yet, we dont go down there until Saturday AM. Andrew Zimmern of Travel Channel is hosting the Trucks on the Beach event we are going to though.
Can we have a free sandwich?
FREE SANDWICHES are given our on the 32nd of every month :)
